“And lived in a cheap boarding house?” for Laura knew that Liz could not have worked in a very aristocratic place.
“Well! he went to a bank every day,” said the simple girl. “And if he warn’t rich why should he have slipped me the five dollars?”
“True—very true,” admitted Laura, much amused.
But she did not think it so funny that evening when, as the girls sat about a fire they had made in the open, singing and telling jokes, and Lizzie was washing up the supper dishes, a sudden shrill whoop arose from the cook-tent.
“Gee! what’s that?” demanded the slangy Bobby.
“A mouse!” declared Nellie. “That funny girl must be just as much afraid of them as I am.”
“I hope it’s nothing worse than a mouse,” Lil said, tremblingly.
Laura had sprung up on the instant and run to the cook tent. Liz had dropped a pile of plates, and some of them were broken. She had deposited herself stiffly in a campstool. Her body was quite stiffened and her eyes fairly bulged—and it was not easy for Liz Bean’s eyes to bulge! 112
“What is the matter, Liz?” demanded Laura, seizing her by the shoulder.
“I seen him,” gasped Liz.